Joss Whedon backs Sarkeesian’s Tropes vs Women series

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator and The Avengers director Joss Whedon has publicly backed Anita Sarkeesian’s latest Tropes vs Women documentary.

Watch the @femfreq #TropesvsWomen vids,” he tweeted. Even if u think u get it, the sheer tonnage makes misogyny seem newly appalling.”

The video, entitled ‘Women as Background Decoration’, explores the relationship between the sexualised use of female body images and in-game violence, with a string of titles such as Red Dead Redemption, BioShock 2, Hitman, Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed coming under the spotlight.

Whedon also addressed the torrent of abuse that filled his feed for declaring his support of Sarkeesian, adding: I watched a bunch of women get sliced up in video games and now I’m watching it on my twitter feed. @femfreq is just truth-telling. Deal.”

Indeed, around the same time that Whedon was tweeting his backing of Sarkeesian herself was once again being subjected to some horrendous abuse online, with threats being made against her and her family.

Some very scary threats have just been made against me and my family. Contacting authorities now,” she tweeted, later adding: I’m safe. Authorities have been notified. Staying with friends tonight. I’m not giving up. But this harassment of women in tech must stop!”

Here’s the video which, it should be noted, contains some graphic imagery and descriptions of sexual violence:

https://twitter.com/josswhedon/status/504505877286895616https://twitter.com/josswhedon/status/504508687722250240

Some very scary threats have just been made against me and my family. Contacting authorities now.

— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014

I’m safe. Authorities have been notified. Staying with friends tonight. I’m not giving up. But this harassment of women in tech must stop!

— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014